Chief Ogochukwu Agabus Umunnakwe Onyema, (aka OAU Onyema) is an erudite lawyer.
In this interview with CHUKS NWEZE, he explains why he wants to replace the former Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, representing Enugu West senatorial zone of Enugu state at the 9th Assembly currently facing trial in far away United Kingdom on allegation of organ harvesting charges .
How far is the suit you filed at the Federal High Court seeking to replace Senator Ekweremadu getting on?
The Federal High Court, Enugu has adjourned the case five times on a short day but eventually, the Court sat first on the 5th of October. On the 19th, the judgment was adjourned to 25th for a new judge to take over. On 25th, the court did not sit again because the new judge, Justice Umar, was not available. He came down from Kaduna. It was adjourned to the next day, 26th of October and they sat and the matter was mentioned. The judge was informed that all parties have been served the processes of the court including hearing notice as well as motion for amendment of the originating summons. Attempt was made by the plaintiff, Onyema, who represented himself alongside a retinue of other lawyers who joined me in the matter. Attempts were made to urge the court to allow the motion to regularize my amendment.
Counsel to Ekweremadu, in the person of Chief Ogochukwu Onyekwuluje, though he did not object to the motion, the court declined granting the leave to allow the plaintiff move the motion for regularization with the reason that the matter was appearing before him for the first time and can only be mentioned. The court therefore ordered for another hearing notice to the issued and served on all defendants – the Senate President, Ekweremadu, the Clerk of the National Assembly, Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP chairman and PDP as an entity, including Prof. Mahmood and INEC. The Court was duly informed that they had long been served the hearing notices but the trial judge insisted that he must issue his own hearing notices because it was only Onyekwuluje and OAU Onyema that were in court, then the matter was adjourned till 9th of November for hearing.
Some people are saying that you have no chance of winning the case and that you are just grandstanding. Did you consider the possibility of a bye-election?
People should study the fact and understand the dynamics of the matter, consequently the corpus from the position of the legislation. This matter is sui generis – meaning that it is on the class of its own which some of its dynamics were not contemplated by other laws. Surely, doctrine of necessity will come to play for judicial and judicious determination of the suit. I say this because a critical evaluation of the facts of the matter vis a vis our electoral law and Constitution will unveil significant lacunas.
I, therefore, urge anyone who wants to make contribution on the issue to first of all call for the processes and understand the facts contained in the affidavits before trying to marry them with our laws so that the person will make meaningful contribution. The issue is that sometimes people do not know what I am asking for because a reporter will report it in the manner that will interest the public but that does not mean that such report is conclusive. In essence, out of eight reliefs sought, a reporter might decide to choose what will interest him without recourse to others. In the instance case, I sought relief to first of all for our Enugu West Constituents to have representation in the Senate by first declaring the Seat vacant or liable to be vacant and then commanding whosoever it is his responsibility to do so.
Another arm of the prayers sought, which interests the public most and brings about some elements of doubt is the area concerning the principle of transferability of votes wherein the Constitution made it clear that votes belong to political parties whose sponsor candidates that eventually benefits from the winning. It was based on that principle that the issue declaring me the next nominated candidate to replace the man whose seat was vacated without any bye-election comes to play. There are reservations on this based on the provision of the amended Constitution Sec. 285 (13) which says that no tribunal shall declare somebody winner of an election if the person did not participate in all the processes of an election. But the question I have is, is this particular scenario an election matter? Surely, it is not. So, it cannot be guided by that section of the Constitution.
Then, assuming but not conceding that section is applicable to another lacuna created by that section, which process of election is it talking about when someone like me considers myself as having participated in all the main election wherein I participated with our party, PDP, alongside the 3rd defendant, Ekweremadu until our party was declared winner and the 3rd defendant benefited from then winning because he was nominated by the party. So, if I am the next nominee of our party, why won’t I benefit from the winning? However alternative prayers were made to the Court should the Court decide to order for a bye-election. Our major interest in this particular thing is that we, the Enugu West are losing a lot and we ought to be represented. It is unfortunate that the position cannot be delegated and he does not have a deputy or an assistant that can hold on until he returns. Despite that, the Senate will not wait for him and we’ll continue to loose. What brought our main worry is not ambition to replace Ekweremadu but the frustration that we are not likely to have a representative until the end of the 9th Senate unless the 3rd defendant, Senator Ekweremadu is replaced. The reason being that the Metropolitan Court handling the Senator’s matter brought out a trial schedule showing that our Senator was not granted bail and that his trial will commence on 28th day of May, 2023, just a day before the end of the administration of Gen. Buhari. It will therefore be foolhardy of us not to start making hares while the sun shines so that our people can get representation. We have already lost six and counting.